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St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea, Conn.

The London plane trees lining this waterfront park — once the site of St. Mary’s namesake, a Victorian-era chapel — suffered a chainsaw attack by vandals in March. One tree fell, and four had to be cut down.Credit
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

IT’S surprising that in a part of Connecticut with names ending in “field,” “ford” and “port,” the name “St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea” ever stuck. The St. Mary’s in question, a tiny log-walled chapel, stood only from 1893 to 1925 in this affluent section of Bridgeport, about 60 miles from Manhattan.

But the chapel was perched at a windswept point, offering unfettered vistas of lighthouses, passing ships and surf, and the hump of Long Island, silhouetted in haze.

The views from the spot — today where Gilman Street becomes Eames Boulevard — still lure people to the area, all the more because of a narrow path-lined public park edged by London plane trees, which starts where the chapel used to stand. In Fairfield County, much of the coastline is upscale and out of bounds, but here, residents and visitors can mingle near the water, a few steps from the wide lawns of mansions.

A harsh reality intruded on St. Mary’s just this March, when a vandal took a chainsaw to the trunks of 15 of the trees, gouging deep grooves. With storms and high winds predicted for that night, the assailant had evidently hoped the trees would topple, city officials say.

One of them did, and workers removed four others for safety reasons. Residents from all corners of the neighborhood came out to decorate the stumps with tree-themed poems in tribute, and the city planted five 16-foot replacements on May 13.

But the vulnerability of the 10 damaged trees upsets David Berkowitz, whose house is nearby.

“It was scary because it didn’t seem that far removed from violence toward people or animals,” said Mr. Berkowitz, who moved to St. Mary’s in part because of those very same trees. He first saw them one day in 2004 on a visit to the area.

At the time he and his wife, Anne Watkins, were shoehorned into an 800-square-foot attic apartment in South Philadelphia and looking to live closer to their relatives, among them Mr. Berkowitz’s cousins in Trumbull.

Because the couple worked from home, they could be flexible about geography, which is why they bought a 1926 colonial in St. Mary’s and turned two of its five bedrooms into offices.

The house, which cost $525,000 in 2005, required $45,000 in renovations, including a new boiler and windows. But Mr. Berkowitz sees it as a bargain considering his proximity to Long Island Sound and Ash Creek, whose mud flats can be tangy at low tide.

When out cycling, “I round the corner and smell the saltwater,” Mr. Berkowitz said, “and know that I’m almost home.”

WHAT YOU’LL FIND

Borders are a subject of debate. Some argue that Bridgeport’s entire southwestern corner should be called Black Rock. Others maintain that Black Rock and St. Mary’s are distinct neighborhoods separated by Brewster Street.

Taking Brewster Street as the boundary, Black Rock has more multi- than single-family homes, including a housing project, while the mix is about 50-50 in St. Mary’s, where building lots are also larger. St. Mary’s, less than a square mile in area, has about 5,000 residents, according to census data.

It doesn’t resemble a lot of Bridgeport. Leafy blocks with well-kept Craftsman, Greek Revival and Cape houses, many with clusters of purple blossoms out front, seem a universe apart from, say, the East Side area, with its shuttered factories and weedy lots.

Yet as a whole, Bridgeport is no longer really deserving of its unfavorable image — despite the grim glimpses one might get in passing from Interstate 95. For one thing, its downtown has undergone a major revitalization.

“Bridgeport suffers from a reputation,” said Steven Spaulding, a resident and retired developer who used to live in Newtown but wanted to be closer to his grandchildren, in Fairfield.

After hunting in well-known enclaves like Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Mr. Spaulding was tipped off by a friend about St. Mary’s, and his first reaction upon seeing it was, “We didn’t think Bridgeport had anyplace like this.”

Pleasantly surprised, he snapped up a prefabricated three-bedroom colonial for $945,000 in 2006, later investing $250,000 in a new kitchen, a circular drive and wooden siding.

His house is atypical of St. Mary’s; most homes were built in the mid-1940s, according to census records — and many historic ones, especially Tudors, line Grovers Avenue, a desirable street.

Beaches in St. Mary’s are privately owned and are mostly hidden. But the nautical theme is prevalent, in the three yacht clubs, Fayerweather, S.S. Norden and Black Rock; in the stack of kayaks and canoes by a sand patch on Seabright Avenue; in the three dried starfish propped on a window ledge on Woodland Avenue.

Among the condominiums are the Anchorage, a beachside complex that dates to the late 1970s, and the Village at Black Rock, a new development. Since sales started in 2006, said Edward Pinto, its sales director, all but one of its 105 units have sold.

St. Mary’s also has a co-op: the red-brick Bridgeport Garden Apartments, built to house workers from Bridgeport’s gun factories during World War I.

In mid-May there were 19 single-family homes listed, at an average of $791,753. They ranged from $199,000, for a three-bedroom Cape, to $2,499,900 for an 11-room St. Mary’s landmark known as the Chimneys, currently Bridgeport’s priciest listing. St. Mary’s is also home to the next-most-expensive one, a four-bedroom contemporary with 150 feet of direct waterfront, at $2.4 million.

In Black Rock at the same time, there were six homes listed, for an average of $295,000, suggesting properties in St. Mary’s carry a premium.

But when it comes to waterfront sales, houses in St. Mary’s cost less than most in Fairfield — particularly in Fairfield Beach, which is next door and has a comparable stock. Its 101 listings averaged $1.19 million.

But by this time last year, not one home or condo had closed, said Denise Walsh, a broker with William Raveis Real Estate, whereas already this year, five homes and two condos have sold. Ms. Walsh says she is optimistic about surpassing 2009’s totals.

“Once spring hits and people start venturing out again,” she said, “we see homes start to sell, especially on the waterfront.”

With 19 rentals available in mid-May, plus others not advertised through brokers, St. Mary’s appears to have a robust rental market. Two-bedroom apartments, typically found in three-story Victorian homes along Davidson Street among others, start at $1,100.

WHAT TO DO

Busy Fairfield Avenue, which splits the neighborhood, offers a hodgepodge of businesses, including two tattoo parlors as well as a restaurant called Viale, which offers an 18-ounce New York strip steak for $26. Bait-and-tackle shops painted with red-and-white scuba flags sell “live shiners.”

Large supermarkets are close by; the Harborview Market, where guitarists perform on Sundays, is also popular.

THE SCHOOLS

Residents rave about the Black Rock School. In fact, there is strong interest in adding seventh and eighth grades to the school, said John J. Ramos Sr., Bridgeport’s superintendent, adding that the state had set aside financing.

But test results are mixed. On exams last year, 91 percent of fourth-graders met standards in math, 68 in reading and 81 percent in writing, versus 85, 74 and 85 percent statewide.

For now, middle-school students attend Longfellow, where 72 percent of eighth-graders met state standards in math last year, along with 46 percent in reading and 62 percent in writing, versus 85, 81 and 84 statewide.

At Bassick High School, which enrolls 1,133, SAT averages were 356 in math, 382 in reading and 364 in writing, versus 508, 503 and 506 statewide.

THE COMMUTE

St. Mary’s isn’t on a train line, but a new Metro-North station is scheduled to open next summer off Black Rock Turnpike. It could ease congestion at Fairfield’s main station, where the waiting list for permit spaces is six years long.

From Fairfield, which is about eight minutes from St. Mary’s by car, nine trains run to Grand Central Terminal weekdays from 6 to 8 a.m. The fastest takes 67 minutes. Monthly passes are $301.84 online.

THE HISTORY

Bridgeport’s oldest house is the dark-brown Colonial with leaded-glass windows at No. 268 Brewster Street, near the site of wharves that once made the area a bustling port for ship lumber, said Mary Witkowski, Bridgeport’s historian. Built in 1720 by a settler named John Wheeler, the house is still privately owned.

A version of this article appears in print on May 23, 2010, on page RE7 of the New York edition with the headline: The Saltwater Smell Means You’re Home. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe